Pre-Construction

The foundation for any project is the preconstruction phase. A clear understanding of the Owner’s goals and creating a plan to implement them is instrumental in the overall success of a project. L. E. Waters is capable of offering a variety of preconstruction services from conceptual estimating to value engineering and constructability analysis to best suit the overall needs of the project. L. E. Waters is able offer its expertise in the key decision making process with the guidance of project ownership to help shape the project and ensure the highest level of success through construction completion.

Conceptual Estimating: Conceptual or order of magnitude estimating is becoming more prevalent within the industry as more projects are more commonly fast-tracked and require early contractor involvement. L. E. Waters utilizes On-Screen estimating programs to provide quick, accurate estimates with little information required by the Owner. Pulling from historical data, current material, labor and equipment pricing, L. E. Waters is able to turn around complete accurate cost proposals without full subcontractor involvement decreasing the time it takes to produce estimate. L. E. Waters estimating staff has a vast knowledge of market subcontractor pricing as well as self-perform production rates and is able to work backwards from a big picture to provide order of magnitude estimates consistent with market pricing. Our team is also able to provide schematic layouts that are cost loaded which in-turn produce instantaneous estimates as layouts and design intent change.

Value Engineering: Strategic Value Engineering can save overall costs of the job as well as schedule without compromising the design intent of the project. Value Engineering begins early in the conceptual estimating and design phase of the project where L. E. Waters and strategic subcontractors are able to suggest value added solutions. The team will work with Owner to identify areas in the design that are of possible cost savings. Then, propose up to date budgets for any changes to the design that the owner is on board with. The overall goal of L. E. Waters Value Engineering practices is to maintain the integrity of design and the Owner’s vision for the project while providing feedback on possible cost and schedule saving measures to be taken which will not compromise the design intent. Life-Cycle costs will also be taken into account during Value Engineering sessions to ensure the most cost-effective building systems for the lifetime of that system.

Constructability Reviews: Early in the design phase of a project, L. E. Water’s team will begin to analyze the bidding documents to ensure constructability and feasibility for the project to be completed as designed within the Owner’s schedule. The team will provide feedback to the Owner or Architect through constructability reviews. These reviews allow us to “Build the Project” as it is being designed thus allowing for possible clash’s in scope or deficiencies in design to be vetted out during in the preconstruction phase, rather than once construction has already begun. The benefit to the Owner is a reduction of change order issues resulting from re-work, as the problems will be identified and resolved before errant work is performed. This will also help avoid of delays caused by problems discovered during the course of construction.